Two trained to lead potential KIPP charters in Phila.
Two educators with experience at KIPP Philadelphia Charter School are being trained to make sure they are ready if KIPP receives approval to open two more charters in 2010-11.
Two educators with experience at KIPP Philadelphia Charter School are being trained to make sure they are ready if KIPP receives approval to open two more charters in 2010-11.
The nonprofit Knowledge Is Power Program announced yesterday that the two are among 17 educators nationwide named Fisher Fellows. They are completing a five-week program this summer at New York University focusing on the business, leadership, and academic skills to lead KIPP charters.
Aaron Bass, a former dean at KIPP's charter in North Philadelphia, is being prepared to lead a proposed KIPP high school. Ben Speicher, a former sixth-grade teacher, is being trained to administer a KIPP elementary school.
As part of the fellowship, both will observe and assist at KIPP schools across the country in the fall. They would return to the city in early 2010 to prepare to open the proposed charters.
KIPP Philadelphia wants to convert troubled district schools into charters as part of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's strategic plan, Imagine 2014. The district expects to request specific proposals in the fall.
If KIPP is not chosen for that program, it will apply to open two new charter schools, said Marc Mannella, chief executive officer of KIPP Philadelphia.
Doris and Donald Fisher, founders of Gap Inc., established the fellowship program in 2000 to help KIPP replicate the success of its original charter schools in Houston and New York.
KIPP opened its charter school in North Philadelphia in 2003, and enrolls 330 students from fifth through eighth grades. KIPP is scheduled to open a charter in West Philadelphia next month in leased space at the former Turner Middle School.
The national organization, based in San Francisco, has 82 schools in 19 states and Washington.
